No rift with Shiv Sena on any issue, says BJP

February 26, 2009 00:43 IST

The Bhartiya Janata Party has denied any rift between L K Advani and Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on any issue. When Advani was in Mumbai on Turesday, Thackery refused to meet the BJP leader saying that he was unwell and should not be disturbed. But the mouth piece of Shiv Sena, Saamna disclosed that it was the Sena chief who prevented sacking of Narendra Modi after the Godhra incident.

Addressing a press conference, Prakash Javadekar, Rajya Sabha member of BJP, said that the media was unncessarily trying to make an issue out of nothing.

Javadekar was mum when asked why the BJP had not sought an appointment with the Sena chief since Advani's Mumbai visit was planned well in advance. He was evasive when asked if Sushma Swaraj was being asked to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh. " When the cental election committee takes a decision we would tell you immediately," the BJP spokeperson said.

Earlier Arun Shourie accused the union government of not trying to find out the names of those politicians and businessmen who had stashed millions of dollars in the Swiss bank accounts. "According to the information the money in foreign bank accounts is over one trillion dollors. Those who have kept money in Swiss accounts are criminals as they have evaded paying tax on their earnings and should be tried accordingly," he said.

"The Comptroller and Auditor General has in its report had said that the accounts had been fudged and even written letter to prime minister's office.Though only 6,300 crores were spent out of 20,400 crores ear-marked for various projects rest of the money was described as settled. And the money was not less then Rs 14,000 crores," Shourie said.

Shourie wanted to know what happened in ten days that the government had to cut prices on service tax after finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had said that no sops had been made in the interim budget. " The next government would have to work harder. This was admitted even by the prime minister's economic advisors," he said.